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Text File | 1994-07-03 | 70KB | 1,273 lines

ZipNews Reader/Mailer v0.93a, 7/03/94 - For too long, many of you have been inconvenienced by the ungraceful exit from the reader when trying to load/read an article when insufficient RAM exists for that article. The reader now loads as much of the article as will fit, provides a warning that the article is too large and suggests that a S)ave to a file and reading that file outside of the reader can be done. However, normal reading/replying operations with as much of the article/message as can be loaded into the reader is now possible. The "saved" article is complete and can be read by any ASCII utility or processed by by uudecode, etc. - Corrected a situation where new mail could be lost due to insufficient disk space when running in the Waffle Local mode and when importing news/mail. This never impacted the packet reader mode. - Fixed a bug causing an "Out of synch" condition to occur when indexing a news file. The problem arose when encountering a news article which was the last of a given newsgroup AND and in which the last line was not terminated by a linefeed character. The code now accommodates such an unusual condition. ZipNews Reader/Mailer v0.92y, 3/28/94 - Finally succeeded in squashing a particularly elusive, bothersome bug and one that has survived many releases of this code despite its having been reported to me many times. Former versions of the reader could not be used reliably to import multiple packets in one invocation of the reader without risking failed indexing on the 2nd or later packet imports. As a workaround, it was either necessary to choose "Index" from the News menu to correct the failed indexing OR one had to exit the reader between packet imports. Fixed! :) - Added yet another configurable parm. This one is for setting the background color of the pop-up status messages. The default has been brown, but some have indicated that it does not show up well, or contrast sufficiently well, with the foreground colors. Although not providing full foreground/background/border configurability, this release should provide improved readability on some systems. The new paramater is available on the "Config" sub-menu within the setup/install program. - After all this time, amazing but true(!), at least one host with a very "persnickety" mailer has been found that does not like the ZipNews mailed items. The "From " of outgoing mail (not to be confused with the "From: " line) _MUST_ contain a date/time string else this particular mailer rejects the message. So, we've modified the Waffle LOCAL mode of the reader to add this string. (The ZipNews Door is being revised at this time for the same reason.) - Added a "friendly" display during indexing the personal mail and when leaving mail when the index file is being updated with item retention info. Some folks are keeping _LOTS_ of mail now that we have added the DELETE/KEEP/AGE retention capability, and the added display should at least indicate that something is being done when the larger mailbases are being handled. - Found some high ASCII characters, that could not be input as part of a message header when Internation Character mode is turned on. Fixed. - Also corrected minor interface problem (Y/n prompt on append to prior PST file) where the <ENTER> key was not accepted. Fixed. - Discovered a problem with Borland C++ handling of random file accesses which was preventing complete processing of the mail database after having been marked for DELETEs, AGED items, etc. Many of the items at the end of the file (after the 281st item on my system) were not being processed as requested). Revised file handling as a workaround and all is well. - Corrected a problem in the operation of the "pick lists" within ZipNews SETUP. In reviewing the setup of article colors, foreground and background, and other config parms entered via pick lists, the current value in the config file should have been pre-positioning the highlit bar when positioned on the parm. This was broken, and has been fixed. Can now traverse the "config" sub-menu within SETUP - Config Changes by merely hitting <ENTER> and no values will be changed. - This release adds full ISO-8859/1 compatibility with necessary character mappings supporting the DOS code page 850. Articles and messages posted by the reader follow the pertinent parts of RFC-1521 for appropriate Mime encoding (and notification of same via standard Mime headers). We're grateful to Gisle Hannemyr (gisle@oslonett.no) for providing us his Mimefold Library for incorporation with the reader. His guidance and work on the Mimefold library have been invaluable in this effort. To turn on the ISO-8859/1 compatibility features, you must choose from the reader main menu: SETUP - Config Changes, Config, and then select for "Int'l Chars" the YES response. Also, you will need to load the DOS code page 850 for proper display of the high ASCII ISO-8859/1 (Latin 1) characters. Note: This release of the software, while supporting RFC-1521 for appropriate Mime encoding, does not yet support RFC-1522 for Mime encoding of headers. Not many mailers support that RFC at this time. RFC-1522 will be addressed in a future release. - Fixed some strangeness in forms of the date/time display in the pseudo-message header area on the article display screen. - When in the "Waffle Local" mode, and under low free RAM conditions, the code was not swapping out to EMS/XMS/Disk when posting a mail or news article (when running Waffle's RMAIL or RNEWS). Fixed. - Discovered a condition where a "From:" header line had a VERY verbose name string contained within a leading string (before the Internet address) would cause the address string to be inaccessible when creating a "To:" header during construction of a reply. Fixed. - When following a news posting with a very long "Newsgroups:" header line, not all newsgroups contained in the original article's "Newsgroups:" header line were being retained in the follow-up article. Fixed. In order to assure proper operation within the limits of our present header line editing, however, it is NOT possible to modify the original "Newsgroups:" header line if it is longer than 75 characters. ZipNews Reader/Mailer v0.92x, 1/25/94 - Fixed the "Cc:" header line processing when operating in Waffle LOCAL mode. This had been broken in an earlier release such that messages were not being sent to the addressees listed on the "Cc:" line. - Fixed problem of the 'c' key when catching up the last thread displayed on the screen. It was resulting in the display of the next screen with its last thread falsely indicating no unread articles. - Exchanged some set-up items between the "Utility" category menu and the "Config" menu in the ZipNews Install/Set-up program such that the items referenced by the two categories are more meaningfully grouped. - When following a news posting, there were conditions whereby the "Newsgroups:" header line was becoming truncated such that a news- group name was changed and no longer a valid name. Fixed. - The major enhancement introduced with this release is the addition of mailbase maintenance functionality. The contents of the mail file, USERNAME.mai is now controlled by a default retention setting and some new control keys. Retention of messages that have been read may be set by default to "KEEP", "DELETE", or "AGE to nn DAYS". You may set this default by going into SETUP-Config Setup, and choosing the "Config" submenu in the setup program. Then select from the available settings for the "Mail Control" parameter. Once you have read a message, it will be marked with the "default" Mail Control setting. After you exit the "Mail" function of the reader, the settings are applied to all messages. You may run an Expire/Delete process against your mail from the "Mail" menu. No action is taken on mail items that are unread or marked as KEEP. Messages are deleted that are marked DELETE, or AGE nn DAYS and more thn 'nn' days have elapsed since the message's "Date:" header line. The total process preserves the the message read vs. unread indicators when the "purge" is performed. You may override the mail control setting on a thread or individual message basis. When at the thread display screen OR when viewing a a message, the two new command keys Alt-K and Alt-D are active. Alt-K marks a thread or a message as KEEP (regardless of the overall mail control default setting). Similarly, Alt-D marks a thread or a message as DELETE. Whether the key stroke affects an entire thread or an individual message is determined by the screen display at the time of the key stroke -- thread selection screen = entire thread affected; message display screen = individual message affected. When at the thread selection screen and hitting one of these command keys, the retention status of only read messages in the thread is affected. Messages that are unread are unaffected. You may erase the retention status of a thread or an individual message by using the Z command key to mark it as unread. The C key to mark as read well re-apply the mail control default. On-screen indication of mail retention status is provided. When a thread becomes totally read, the status of the first message is indicated where the thread's number of unread messages had formerly been displayed. If the retention status for other members of the thread differs from the first message, an asterisk, "*", is printed following the indicated retention. TIP: To see how the individual messages are marked, you may toggle "Unthreaded" mode. Or, you might look at the individual read messages using the <ENTER> or <Rt.Arrow> key (the retention status may be seen as described next). An additional indication of retention status is shown at the invidual message level. On the third line of the message header summary area, at the exteme right, a red letter appears. (This is at the right end of the line which displays the "From:" line and "Article nn of mm".) If the message displayed was formerly unread, the letter marks the retention status that will be assigned by default, "K", "D", or "A". If the message is one that had been read before, the status is that which had been assigned at an earlier time (either the default, or the result of an Alt-K or Alt-D command key). In either case, the use of a command key can change or override that indicator. (And, there is always the option of the Z key putting the message away and leaving it marked as unread, deferring the assignment of retention status.) You need not run immediately the expire/deletion function on a message base that has accumulated deletions or has expired aged items. You may continue to access these messages for as long as you like. The retention status of all messages is carried forward from one session with the reader to the next. Whenever you wish to "clean up" your message base you may choose the Mail - Expire/Del function. If there is no work to be done, a message informs of you as to why the full process was not run. Otherwise, you are presented an onscreen, active report of activity as the process is run. If after completing and expire/delete run you wish to "undo" it, you may choose the "Undo Last" function from the mail menu. Your old message base is immediately restored. (The new, cleaned up message base is deleted.) Should you decide, after all, that you DO want the expire/delete process to take effect, merely run it again, etc. The addition of this sophisticated facility for handling mail may be regarded as a precursor to that being planned for news handling in the ZipNews reader. ZipNews Reader/Mailer v0.92w, 12/25/93 - We've added a convenient, new 10-day evaluation/registration key file which affords complete evaluation of the reader before buying. And, the key can be quickly and conveniently obtained. The 10-day evaluation key will only work with this and later releases of the code. To order your evaluation key file send e-mail to: file-server@nlbbs.com Include the following 3 lines of text in the body of the message: password ZipNews evaluation johnd John Q. Doe quit Substitute for "johnd", above, your login or username (and this must match the "username" specified in your reader setup and the login used at the ZipNews site you call). Substitute for "John Q. Doe" your name as you'd like it to appear on the "From:" lines of your messages. In The above example, if John were calling the site, nlbbs.com, his message "From:" lines would look like this: From: johnd@nlbbs.com (John Q. Doe) (You don't have to specify a middle initial or name...just include the full name you'd like to go by.) Also, in specifying the password on the first line, the password is case-sensitive. So use capitals in "ZipNews" exactly as shown. After receipt of a correct message by our file-server an automated reply containing your 10-day evaluation key will be sent during the next UUCP session. It will be contained within a uuencoded ZIP file. - Several enhancements were made to the INSTALL program which was first introduced in the last BETA release: o It now warns you that it is about to exit, and gives you a chance to resume normal operation during the "install" process. o When you do not specify an installation drive and directory, it exits as before but it now tells you why. o The foreground/background color selection picklists have been arranged in a different sequence for easier operations within the sub-menu in which these choices are contained. o When the "installation" directory (where the exeutables are stored) is not the same as the current directory during the install process, the executables are now deleted from the current directory. This eliminates the confusing results if, following the installation and without changing to a different directory, the new user enters the command "ZNR" to start the reader. In the prior release it would start from the executable located in this directory, when it was not the "installation" directory. (This sounds more confusing than the original situation that it corrects, but it works well! :) ) - We've finally resolved the problem of what to do when preparing an upload packet when an old one is found. Recent releases of the code have simply deleted the old packet and then generated a new one. But many have complained, that they had made a packet, never uploaded it, entered more messages, and made up the packet only find that it had overwritten the previous one that had not been uploaded. Now, in this release of the code, when you elect to create an upload packet, the code checks for the existence of one. If one is found you are asked whether to append the new outgoing messages to this packet or to delete the existing packet. If you elect not to append, the earlier upload packet is deleted before creating a new packet. ZipNews Reader/Mailer v0.92v, 12/15/93 - This release marks the arrival of our new INSTALL program. From this point forward original installation and installation of upgrades of the ZipNews Reader will be extremely simple and with far less chance of user error during the setup procedure. The INSTALL has contextual help to assist in every step of setting up your configuration. It checks for completeness, and will even check the installation of a previous version for errors. Once the installation is completed, a full setup facility from within the reader is available for change of virtually any configuration parameter. And complete contextual help is available every step of the way. To upgrade an earlier release or install the ZipNews Reader for the first time, simply unzip the distribution archive into a work directory and enter the command: INSTALL. What could be simpler? WARNING: If you are installing over a prior release, and you wish to save your old form of the ZNREADER.CFG, you'd best rename it. Although the INSTALL will rename the current one found to ZNRCFG.BAK, a second install will cause the loss of your old original ZNREADER.CFG. Please note, that a sample ZNREADER.CFG is no longer included in the distribution archive. - The BBS Selection function, only partially operational in prior versions of the code, is now complete. If you call multiple BBSs or a mix of DOS BBSs and Unix sites (which would have access to Steve Belczyk's Uqwk) you may conveniently change the "abbrev" parameter in the ZNREADER.CFG file. Selecting SETUP - BBS Selection displays the current value of that parm and allows you to input a change. If changed, the ZNREADER.CFG is updated. - The Login Selection function, only partially operational in prior versions of the code, is now complete. This feature also is for support of those calling multiple sites for ZipNews access. If you are a registered user of ZipNews, your ZNREADER.KEY file contains up 3 logins you requested when registering. You may use the SETUP - Login Selection function to display which of the up to 3 of these logins is the currently active one. You may change the active login and record the new value (as the "username" parm) in the ZNREADER.CFG file. Such a change may be permanent, or you may conveniently change it again, should you contact a different site where you are known by different login. In this manner, a single registration key can meet the needs of most people who call multiple sites for ZipNews access. - And, there is now the SETUP - Config Changes function. This invokes the full setup facility mentioned earlier. Nearly all configuration file parameters may be changed to fit a revised operating environment or to set up new ways of operating the reader. - Added the "To:" header line to the headers editor when doing e-mail. The header line editor is accessed by Ctrl-H when prompted for the "Subject:", OR by hitting H at the prompt seen upon exiting your editor and before saving the message. Several users have expressed need for a way to view or modify a mail addressee, to add addressees, or to see the result of the replacement of an entered "alias" from your named aliases file. All are now possible with this enhancement. ZipNews Reader/Mailer v0.92u, 12/05/93 - After using "f" when reading e-mail to forward a message to someone, and then returning to the main menu and deciding to read news, the news indices would be found messed up. Fixed. - Recently discovered (while setting up our new Internet mailing list for ZipNews Users) that a "From:" header is not always required in an e-mail message.....that a "Sender:" header would suffice according to RFC-822. As a result of the reader not recognizing valid messages when the "From:" line was absent, messages could be dropped on the floor (never indexed). Fixed. By the way, if you haven't joined our the ZipNews Users mailing list, you may do so by sending e-mail to list-server@nlbbs.com with the following in the message body: subscribe zipnews-users quit - If you prefer to have local time displayed rather than GMT as part of your outgoing "Date:" header lines, you may use the new "local_time" parameter in the ZNREADER.CFG file (see the sample file included in this archive). If you include a line beginning with "local_time: " in the .CFG and have a "Yes" also appearing on that line (ignore the quotes in both of the preceding instances), *AND* if you have SET the DOS ENVIRONMENT variable of TZ equal to a valid time code (described below), your local time will be show in your outgoing messages. If you do not set a TZ environment variable, but have a line saying "local_time : yes", then local time presented in the "Date:" header defaults to Eastern Standard Time (EST). Some examples of valid TZ environment variable settings --- For Los Angeles: SET TZ=PST8 and if for daylight savings time: SET TZ=PST8PDT The number represents the difference in hours: GMT - PST (or PDT). For Arizona: SET TZ=MST7 For New York: SET TZ=EST5 and if for daylight savings time: SET TZ=EST5EDT For London: SET TZ=GMT0 For Moscow: SET TZ=MSK-3 For Aukland: SET TZ=NZT-13 For Loeddekoepinge, Sweden SET TZ=CET-1 An Additional Note: If you elect NOT to set up the "local_time" parameter, you may still set the TZ variable. If done the GMT form of time display is then localized to your location. If you do nothing, the default will show an adjustment against GMT to reflect U.S. Eastern Standard Time. - There was some buggy behavior in locating articles after a successful decryption operation. There were conditions under which an article could not be found, and a message was displayed indicating that it might have "expired" off the system. Fixed. - While viewing an article that had just been successfully decrypted, any attempt to S)ave to disk (or to printer if LPT1 or PRN specified as filename) failed. Fixed. - If shell to the decryptor was performed successfully, but no output file was produced by the decryptor, the code was getting lost upon return. Such an operation may occur when a public key block is included in a message. Invoking PGP on such a message can result in adding the key found to your public ring, without creation of an output file for the reader. Fixed the code such that when this situation occurs, the original input message is re-displayed upon return. - One user has suggested that the overall interface would be improved by eliminating the little pop-up messages that specifically indicate "end of thread" and "no more messages . . ." in the group, etc. The various pop-up status reports of the reader are helpful and do a good job of informing the user, but these perhaps can be eliminated as the return to the next higher display (return from articles to the thread display, and from threads to groups display, etc.) really convey that you've run out of articles in the specific lower level from whence you returned. To some it may be arguable as to whether these 2 pop-ups were helpful or not....but for now, at least, they've been deactivated to see how it works. Comments are welcome. - We've been troubled for some time by a pesky quirk whereby there would be a beep and error window display of "Cannot find mail-type .jn file . . .". Well, we did find where a good bit of the trouble was caused and made corrections. Whether that false report is fixed in all instances remains to be seen. ZipNews Reader/Mailer v0.92t, 11/27/93 - Under certain conditions of deep directory structures OR long directory names, long command lines for invoking archivers are reached. DOS allows command lines to 128 characters. The ZipNews reader, however, was not permitting command line lengths in excess of 90 characters. The symptom exhibited was a failure of the archiver. (Example: PKZIP would report "Nothing to do".) Fixed. - Several users have complained about the S)ave to disk function failing to preserve message lines in excess of 80 characters. This was especially troublesome when trying to save articles containing source code, many lines of which exceeded 80 characters. This release corrects the S)ave to disk function so that lines to 255 characters in length in the saved articles/messages are preserved. - Revised format of the EXTRACT.NWS and EXTRACT.MAI, the "archives" for news and mail respectively. These files now have a format consistent with the .NWS and .MAI files contained in a packet. (I guess you can see where we're headed with these "archive" files. <g>) - The "really big" enhancement in this version, another in response to several users expressing strong interest, is the addition of public/private key encryption capability. Many are starting to use encryption for e-mail. Consider it as an "envelope" enclosing your letter. It's not a matter of paranoia or being overly secretive that prompt some to use encryption. But rather: Is all of your simple snail mail correspondence on postcards? Why have numerous "postmasters" or ordinary "mailmen" _casually_ reading your _casual_ mail? At the end of the sample ZNREADER.CFG included in the distribution archive, you will see coverage for 3 new parameter lines: "encrypt :", "decrypt :", and "encrypt_user :". These are the encryption command line, the decryption command line, and the encryption user specification, respectively. This version of the reader has been tested with the RIPEM and PGP23a public/private key encryption systems, and it should be compatible with ViaCrypt, commercial version of PGP23a, when it is released. Encryption/decryption is implemented not only for e-mail, but for news too. Public/private key encrytion is of limited usefulness for news, but for those who can use it: enjoy. There may be need to change the encrypt/decrypt command lines from the normal setup for mail. If this becomes awkward for "news encryptors" in sufficient volume, I will consider adding separate command lines pertaining to news usage. Sample encrypt and decrypt command lines are presented in the ZNREADER.CFG sample file. You will note that the concept of replaceable parameters has been introduced in order to provide you the maximum flexibility for using these encryption systems. It is likely that this implementation is flexible enough to support newer systems that might supercede RIPEM and PGP. When encryption capability is "enabled" by virtue of the reader finding an active "encrypt:" parm line, an additional option is presented to you when you leave your editor after preparing an e-mail item. You will note that, in addtion to standard choices of S, A, C, H, and E, a new one, N for eN)crypt is available. If you have specified valid command line for your chosen encryption package, you should be able to send the composed article through the encryption process by hitting the "N". You interact with the encryption system per normal and, when it completes, you are returned to the menu/prompt from which you invoked the encryption. If you should choose E to E)dit again, you are be able to view the encrypted body of your message, add anything you like, etc. Hit S to S)ave the message as you normally would. When decryption capability is "enabled" by there being an uncommented "decrypt:" parm line, you may decrypt a valid public/private key-encrypted message that has been sent to you. You need only view the message as you normally would, and hit the "d" key. Once you interact with the decryption process that is invoked, as you normally would with your chosen system, the display of the encrypted message is revised to show the decrypted message. You may reply to the displayed message, quoting text per normal, as you enter your text editor for the reply. Both RIPEM and PGP require that your Internet address be incorporated in the encryption/decryption processes. For this purpose the "encrypt_user:" parm line is provided. Normally your local setup has no need to know your Internet address. You need only have your login specified. So, if you are calling and receiving public/private key-encrypted mail from more than one site, you will have to modify that "encrypt_user:" parm frequently. If this becomes a problem for a significant number of people, I will add capability to make such changes easier to accomplish. ZipNews Reader/Mailer v0.92s, 11/08/93 - Added ability to toggle news (or mail) threading on and off. From either the news group selection screen, or the threads selection screen, you may hit "t" to change from threaded action to no threading (that is, articles or messages are in the order received or in sequence as they appear in the packet). Hitting the "t" again reverses the action. When the program is started the default is that threading is in effect. Whenever the threading key is struck, a momentary message displays the action taken and the "Thread Selection" screen header is revised to show the current status. - You may choose whether to thread by subject or by author Threading by author also is a new capability added with this release and is toggled by hitting the "a" from either the news group selection screen or the threads selection screen. Regardless of the state of the current threading control, threading action is turned on whenever the "a" key is struck. Whenever the threading mode is toggled, a momentary message displays the action taken and the "Thread Selection" screen is revised to show the current status. To Summarize the above two sections: "t" or "T" at the Group or Threads screen toggles threading ON/OFF. "a" or "A" at the Group or Threads screen turns threading ON and toggles between threading by subject and threading by author. - In prior releases the code insisted on entry of a "Subject: " line when composing mail. As the "Subject: " header is a required line only for a news article, the code was incorrectly forcing entry of a subject for e-mail. Fixed in this release; that is, entry of a subject is now "optional" for e-mail. - The S)ave-to-disk function available when reading an article or message has been enhanced slightly. After saving an item, the file name is retained and presented as a default when next attempting to save another item during the invocation of the reader. By simply hitting enter and affirming that you wish to append, you can build a single file containing all of the items of particular interest without re-entry of the file name. Also, the successful completion report was changed to a momentary display rather than one requiring a keystroke to clear. ZipNews Reader/Mailer v0.92r, 10/30/93 - We continue to juggle and jiggle the EMS/XMS/Disk swapping functions into place. This release improves operations in some environments and provides more user control over (and information about) the swapping action that occurs under low free RAM conditions. The code has been revised to avoid any attempt to swap to EMS/XMS/Disk if there is more than 200,000 bytes of available RAM in which the external program (editor, spell checker, archiver/unarchiver, etc.) is to run. A command line parm has been added, however, that will allow increasing the 200,000-byte default trigger point. For example, if you choose to enable swapping of the code out to EMS/XMS/Disk if the available free RAM for a shell to your editor falls below 300,000 bytes, you may specify that new value on the command line (See command line parm documentation below). Additionally, you may control the kind of swapping of the reader's code that will occur. Normally the code will try for available EMS memory, if insufficient EMS is found if will try for XMS memory, and if not enough of that, it will attempt swapping to disk. You may: exclude swapping to EMS (leaving XMS or disk possible), exclude swapping to XMS (leaving EMS or disk possible), exclude swapping to any kind of RAM (forcing use of disk), exclude any/all swapping options (disabling swapping). See the next item below for how to invoke any of these exclusions (or to revise of the default swapping trigger point). When a swap to EMS/XMS/Disk is necessary, there is now a momentary display indicating that the swap is occuring, how much RAM was found free, and whether the code is being swapped out to EMS, XMS, or disk. - Documentation of the command line parms -- Some of the following were available in previous releases but never documented. Of special value to users of LCD displays on laptops and palmtops is the the -M parm which forces use of appropriately contrasting shades for more readable screens. If you invoke ZNR.EXE with any character that is not a valid command line parm (say a "?") you will be presented the following display in this release of the code: The following occurred in ZNR Command line syntax error. Correct Syntax: ZNR [-switches] -c = CGA snow elimination -b = BIOS screen writing -m = Force Monochrome text attributes -l = Local operating mode on Waffle systems -ns = No swapping out to EMS/XMS/disk -ne = No swap to EMS -nx = No swap to XMS -nr = No swap to RAM (only to disk) -ntkkk = New trigger point for swap where kkk is the new point over the default 200 (in thousands of bytes), and must be last parm for the switch char Examples: znr -lnsm Invokes the reader in "Waffle Local" mode, prevents any kind of swapping of the code, and uses the monochrome shades for LCD displays. (For a description of Waffle Local mode see the update notes for v0.92b near the end of this file.) znr -ns -L -m Another way of saying the same as the first example. znr -b -mnt300 -nr Invokes the reader while forcing BIOS screen writes (disabling direct screen writes), forcing monochrome shades, revising the default of 200,000 bytes free RAM to 300,000 bytes, and limiting swap-outs to use disk only. (With the 300,000 free RAM limit, it is meant that no swapping will occur if free RAM is at 300,000 bytes or higher.) - When displaying the newsgroup selection screen and if you choose to post an article by hitting "p", the "Newsgroups: " header line will be pre-filled to contain the group name pointed to by the selection arrow. ZipNews Reader/Mailer v0.92q (No public release) ZipNews Reader/Mailer v0.92p, 10/18/93 - Cleaned up processing of ZNREADER.CFG file lines to specifically correct a situation caused by some editors. Lines lacking a carriage return and line feed character pair were causing the reader to misread the ZNREADER.CFG file. Specifically, some new users working with Steve Belczyk's uqwk 1.7 to obtain ZipNews packets from Unix systems (or to upload mail and news postings) had specified "packer: uqwk" on the last line of the ZNREADER.CFG, but the reader never recognized the need to switch to "uqwk" mode while making an upload packet. The editor used in several instances ended the text file with the ending "k" in "uqwk". There was no CR/LF and the reader never recognized a valid packer alternative. This problem has been fixed by a bit more sophistication in the code for reading the .CFG file. - Several users have indicated their preference for having personal mail NOT threaded like the news articles. In this release the threading of personal mail is (perhaps only temporarily) disabled. Your personal mail messages are displayed in threads of 1 and appear in the order they were received. I would consider making this a selectable option, perhaps allowing threading by subject, author, or no threading (i.e., by order received), if there is a hue and cry for this. Otherwise, I will leave the mail as it stands (unthreaded) with this release. (The above is a forerunner of a planned change soon in this area: the ability to delete e-mail from the file that accumulates messages with each new packet. Such will require coordinated changes to the MAIL.CTL file which tracks which messages are read vs. unread.) - We've enhanced further the swapping operations during execution of external programs. Added ability to swap to XMS memory (in addition to EMS or disk). So, in an MS-Windows environment, low memory conditions will prompt use of Windows extended (XMS) memory. If insufficient XMS exists, the swap will occur to disk. A new function library for implementing the swap has been used in the hopes of eliminating the problems experienced by some in release 0.92n. Feedback on any changes noticed is requested. ZipNews Reader/Mailer v0.92n, 9/29/93 - Some folks have been running out of memory when attempting to edit or unzip, or spell check. These operations required considerable FREE RAM to execute them successfully. The ZipNews Reader has been enhanced with this release to swap itself out to available EMS memory (if enough is available) when executing external programs such as archivers, editors, etc. If no EMS memory is available, the reader will swap itself to the disk (the drive and directory you have named as your "home" directory). - When the "Cc: " header was used (for 'Carbon Copies') the reader was generating a "copy" message for each address on the Cc: line. This was in error as it is the mailing agent, not the offline reader that should generate the copies. The generation of the copies has been discontinued with this release. (Originally fell into this trap due to a bug in the Waffle 1.65 rmail.exe which does not generate the needed copies when the addressee on the Cc: line is at the local site. Will have to consider a change to the ZipNews door to handle this, now that the reader has been corrected.) - First-time users have been bothered by an erroneous error message when importing a packet containing only the BBS's <username>.gps file, the list of news groups available. Such a packet is generated for the user the first time he or she accesses the ZipNews door (no news available, but the news groups list downloaded). Although the false error message could always be ignored, and normal operations continued, the error message was disconcerting to say the least. This release of the code avoids the false error message re: ". . . missing news-type .JN file". - Minor correction made to informational message when a <username>.gps file (the list of selectable news groups) cannot be found. - When the reader was running in the Waffle local mode (Waffle sysops only) and attempts were made to read very old articles which had expired off the system, a message replacing the purged article was displayed, but the given article's position in the subject thread was never marked as read. Although TRUE that the article had not been read, a misleading indication remained that there were unread articles "available" for reading. The code in this release corrects the situation such that attempts to read an EXPIRED article result in the article's position in the subject thread is marked as read. ZipNews Reader/Mailer v0.92m, 9/8/93 - Unfortunately we broke the indexing in an earlier release such that the first two articles in a downloaded packet were not getting correctly indexed. Fixed. (The above and a slightly revised ZNRSETUP.BAT are the only changes in this release, due to our haste to get a correction out to the serious problem of missing two articles in a packet.) ZipNews Reader/Mailer v0.92k, 8/8/93 - Added capability for interfacing and uploading mail and news postings/follow-ups to uqwk, Steve Belczyk's news and mail packing facility for Unix. As of this writing I am not certain which version of uqwk (v1.7 or v1.8 perhaps) will handle ZipNews uploads. In order to use this new capability with the correct version of uqwk at a Unix site, you _MUST_ add a new line to your ZNREADER.CFG. The line must begin in position 1 and contain the following: packer : uqwk See the sample ZNREADER.CFG contained in this archive for an example. Of course, you also must have a registered version of the ZipNews reader to create a valid upload packet containing mail and/or your news postings. The unregistered form of the ZipNews reader works well as a straight threaded news reader (no follow-ups or mail) with version 1.6 and later versions of uqwk. ZipNews Reader/Mailer v0.92j, 8/1/93 - Another bug-fix release. When POSTing an article (rather than following one) the newsgroups header was filled with garbage rather than blank. Fixed. ZipNews Reader/Mailer v0.92i, 7/31/93 - Ooops. In changing the long-time default of displaying the news groups immediately following an IMPORT, to returning to the menu, we messed up the operation of indexing personal mail. Corrected and re-released a day later. ZipNews Reader/Mailer v0.92h, 7/30/93 - A "second chance" to edit your message/posting headers is now provided during the composition process: As in earlier releases, once when you are presented with the "Subject:" line (you can hit Ctrl-H for the headers screen) AND, beginning in v0.92h, when you exit from your editor, you have the option of selecting "H)eaders edit" before saving your text. - When posting follow-ups, the reader was placing only the current news group in the "Newsgroups:" header line, rather than copying the "Newsgroups:" header from the original news article. Fixed. - Many users have expressed a preference for the reader to return to the main menu following an "Import" operation rather than going directly to the news group selection screen. Apparently quite few would rather make the choice, with many opting to read personal e-mail before the news. The automatic display of news groups following an "Import" has been disabled. (If I get a lot of complaints about this change, I'd be happy to put it back the way it was -- which is my normal preference.) - If a S)ave to a file requested, and then aborted (hit ESC), the cursor would appear on screen for the remainder of that session OR until a S)ave was finally made. Fixed. - On-screen reports of the action of deleting files no longer needed following the creation of an upload packet have been eliminated. - There were times when selecting news groups and returning to the the news group selection screen, that the cursor/arrow could become "lost" and be placed in illegal positions if either the Up Arrow or the Page Up key were next struck. Fixed. - The rare but occasional occurrence of TAB characters in Subjects and in the From: lines would result in a messed up display of on the thread selection screen. Fixed. - Corrected serious coding error in use of ENTER key when reading a message or news article. A "memory leak" would ensue which, if repeated enough times, would result in the program running out of memory. The use of the ENTER key was change to that originally intended and the "memory leak" bug was fixed. The ENTER key now displays the next article or message in a thread. It's operation is the same as the -> (Right Arrow) key when at the article screen. - In the last release we managed to break the code that would erase any previously created upload packet (*.pst). As a result, many users have found that they have been adding the current session's replies and follow-ups to those of the previous session, unless the prior *.pst were manually deleted. Fixed. The code unconditionally deletes a .pst file before creating a new one. (Note: This area will be changed once again in a future release. It would seem most reasonable that an option be provided to allow adding to a prior .pst file. Am considering allowing that choice IF the date/time of the .pst is newer than the date/time of the .nws or the .mai file in the home directory. If the .pst is older than either of these two packet files, it will be deleted unconditionally. Comments on this planned change are welcomed.) - Corrected the Message-ID header line generated when in Waffle LOCAL mode and generating a message or news article. Formerly the Message-ID generated was not RFC-822 compliant. - A new file is included in this release, ZNRSETUP.ZIP. I am grateful to Mike Batchelor (mike@batpad.org) who has kindly considered the difficulties that can be encountered in configuring the ZipNews reader. He has put together a batch file which, when run with the included QUERY.COM (a PC Mag Utility), simplifies the first-time installation of the reader. It creates the needed ZNREADER.CFG file and makes the necessary directories for the reader's use in accordance with your responses to the prompts. For first-time users: Unzip the ZNRSETUP.ZIP in any directory and enter the command ZSETUP. Please let me know how it goes for you. ZipNews Reader/Mailer v0.92g, 6/26/93 - Two item "forwarding" functions were completed: When reading a news article, you may now hit the "m" key to mail the article to someone. It is marked as being forwarded from you. When reading an e-mail message to you, you may now hit the "f" key to "forward" the message to someone. Like the forwarded news article, the forwarded mail item is marked as being from you. (These functions may be further developed in a future release. I am thinking that control of the message header lines would be appropriate here; also, it may be useful if the user had an opportunity to include his/her own remarks with the forwarded item.) - Removed "Distribution: " header line from those modifiable when sending mail (this was not a valid header for e-mail -- is for news only). - Fixed the (w)rite to newsbase (or mailbase) command. In earlier releases this command was writing news and mail to EXTRACT.NWS located in the root directory of the default drive. This command now recognizes the drive and directory specified in the "newsbase" parameter of the ZNREADER.CFG file. If you have hit "w" while reading a news article, it is saved in the file EXTRACT.NWS, but if you hit the "w" while reading an e-mail message, it is saved in the file EXTRACT.MAI. (NOTE: A future release of the ZipNews reader will allow selection of either of these files for review/re-reading. Either may be read with the current release if you backup or rename current <username>.mai file in your "home" directory and your MAIL.CTL file; then copy in "extract" file of interest as <username>.mai. Then, in the reader, choose MAIL, and then INDEX before attempting to read ... a kludge, but workable until the reader is further developed.) - When posting an article or composing a reply or original e-mail message, it was not possible to bail out by hitting <ESC> at the various prompts/windows. In most instances, to abort a message or posting, you had to cycle through to the point after the editor invocation and select A for abort. This situation has been corrected in v0.92g and later releases. You need merely hit <ESC> at any of the windows prompting for entry of the newsgroup, subject, addressee, etc., to abort the posting or message entry process. ZipNews Reader/Mailer v0.92f and v0.92.fa; 6/20/93 and 6/23/93 (These releases were not widely distributed.) - Fixed some instabilities encountered in loading 5,000 newsgroups in a .GPS list. Established a 100-group limit in a user's personal .JN file. (Had been combining the BBS max news groups limit and the user's max in a .JN file. They are now separate limits.... 5,000 newsgroups on a BBS and 100 newsgroups as the max that a person would be accessing in a packet.) - The entire *.GPS list downloaded from the ZipNews door could not be fully loaded within the reader when it exceeded 100 newsgroups. This has been fixed such that v0.92F allows up to 5,000 groups to be read in if available RAM permits. If there is not enough RAM, it will read in what it can. This problem created an inability to select newsgroups from any or all that were available on a BBS carrying more than 100 groups. - Corrected some problems caused by some editors leaving trailing spaces in the ZNREADER.CFG file between the significant data and the CR/LF that terminates a line. - Other minor fixes. ZipNews Reader/Mailer v0.92e 5/15/93 - Fixed strange disappearance of unread article count when requesting "catch up" of a group, but then answering NO to the prompt. - Added ability to select a newsgroup using the right arrow, ->, key (key usage now consistent with selection of threads). - Under certain conditions, when in Setup - News Selection, and adding new newsgroups, some added newsgroups were generating false reports that they were duplicates of newsgroups already selected. Fixed. - Changed colors of the add newsgroup selection window. The selection bar was not showing up on monochrome systems. - Most significant in this release is a major enhancement to the LOCAL mode of operating the reader. Available for use on any system on which the ZipNews Door has been installed, the LOCAL mode is intended as a convenient sysop's tool, and capable reader (and mailer, when registered). This release adds capability for "accumulating" news within the LOCAL mode. Once you have run "Import - New" at least once, you need only run the "Accumulate" sub-function in order to index for the messages added to the Waffle newsbase since you last imported (since your site last received news). The "Accumulate" sub-function adds the new articles without losing the ability to access the previously read articles. You can go back and re-read them and you can now refer back to entire threads that have built up over several days. This feature went thru several serious phases of instability during development, but it now seems to be operating as solidly at other sites as it does now at the Northern Lights. The LOCAL feature and this new "Accumulate" sub-function is not only available to Waffle sysops, but to any sysop who has installed the Waffle transport mechanism for support of ZipNews on PCBoard, Wilcat!, or other systems. PLEASE NOTE: If the sysop changes his/her personal JOIN file by adding or deleting newsgroups, the reader _MUST_ be next run with IMPORT-NEW. Otherwise there will be an error report of an incompatibility between the JOIN and user index file and any newsgroup changes will be missed. As you accumulate news over a period of days, you may find that nearly your entire newsbase has become indexed and accessable. You also will not that older news articles are designated as "unavailable" with increasing frequency. This is due to your EXPIRE system removing the oldest articles from you your system. Your EXPIRE setup, disk space for the reader's indices, and your own newsreading preferences will determine how frequently you run IMPORT - NEW to start your personal news "accumulation" over again. With the addition of the LOCAL/Accumulate functionality, the ZipNews Reader becomes a system operator's tool that is unique among threaded local readers. - Added in the reader's LOCAL (Waffle) mode of operation, deletion of the user's mailbox.f and mailbox.i files after, and only after, the mail was successfully added to the mail file in the reader's home directory. This happens during IMPORT - New, or IMPORT - Acccumulate. ZipNews Reader/Mailer v0.92d 3/27/93 - A major enhancement this time allows interaction with the ZipNews Door v0.96e to accomplish addition and deletion of newsgroups from your JOIN file, and to revise your last article read pointers. All this can be done via packet upload (if the DOOR is v0.96e). The addition of newsgroups requires that you first download the BBS's listing of available groups. v0.96e of the Door allows you to go into the C)onfigure section, cycle through the setups you may not need to change until you come to an opportunity to respond with a 'Y' to include a newsgroup listing in the packet downloaded this call. Once you have opened that packet with the reader, use "Setup" - "News Selection". Operation thereafter may result (at your option) in a command file being created for revising your newsgroup selections and last article read pointers. This file is placed in your "outgoing" directory (where messages and news postings are placed in the registered version of the reader). This file and newsgroups selection from remote are possible using the unregistered from of the software. - Another big enhancement in this release allows PCBoard sysops and callers to PCBoard systems (that are Waffle-supplemented) to access ZipNews for the first time AND to set up newsgroup selections as first- time callers WITHOUT HAVING TO LOG INTO THE WAFFLE BBS. Yes, on PCBoard-based systems, Waffle is needed to accomplish the uucp transport of news and mail, and to establish its structure, provide user mailboxes, etc., but the Waffle BBS itself is no longer needed. First-time callers merely login in the usual way on PCBoard systems with the command: zipnews username The system will recognize the caller as a first-time user, if "username" is unique on the system, and prompt the user through the first call. The first session ends with the caller downloading a packet containing the BBS's newsgroups list. As described above, the caller can produce an upload packet containing newsgroup selections and last article read pointers. After the upload during the second call to the door, downloads of news may occur in that session. Notes on setting last article read pointers: When adding new newsgroups, it is unlikely you'll know the explicit high article numbers that would be appropriate. The following convention seems to work well. Rather than specify an exact article number, although this is supported if you need the method, you specify your requirements as: H-nnn where the "H-" merely inform the system to consider this as "HIGH NUMBER MINUS nnn". So if you wish to get the last 25 articles from a specific newsgroup, you would set up the high article number on your reader display as: H-25 . Simple enough? Remember that in order to use these capabilities with the door, you must be interacting with the ZipNews Door v0.96e or a later release. - Added ability to specify and invoke your favorite spell checker to operate on your text. One of the better shareware spell checkers is ShareSpell. It is available on the Northern Lights as SPELL23D.ZIP. To enable spell checking, you must have added the configuration info to your ZNREADER.CFG as shown in the sample .CFG file (the entry following the editor specification in this sample). The spell checking is invoked before you save a message or news posting. You are presented a prompt of "S)ave, A)bort, C)heck, or E)dit again". If you enter a 'C' you will invoke the your spell checker. ZipNews Reader/Mailer v0.92c 3/24/93 - Stub (not active yet) added for adding/deleting newsgroups via an upload to the door. Being added to the "Setup" Menu. - Added to "Setup" menu the ability to change BBS name (for this session only -- the ZNREADER.CFG file is NOT updated yet). - When ending the viewing of the last unread message of a thread where there are no unread threads below or after that thread in a newsgroup, neither the SPACEBAR nor the TAB key were able to return the user to the group selection screen. FIXED. - When in the -L (Waffle Local mode) it is possible an invalid DOS directory name willl be sought. Therefore, we Added code to avoid a possible invalid DOS dir name when encountering a "c++" newsgroup. The code now ASSUMES (without checking the USENET file's /dir= entry) that the sysop has specified a directory name of cpp for c++. - Added 'x' as an additional key that could be struck to exit thread selection and restore the group selection screen. - If you add a line in your ZNREADER.CFG file which begins with the word "aliases" (ignore the quotes), and following that word somewhere on that line is a ":" (colon, ignore the quotes) followed by a filename (full pathname OK, and preferred), the named file will be referenced for an alias to substitute for the name you entered on the "To: " line of a message. The format of the file is straight ASCII with a CR/LF terminating each line. If a line begins with other than a "#" or a " " (space, ignore quotes), the word to the 1st space will be what is compared to your "To: " entry. Anything else on that line after the first space until the end or another space (or any whitespace) is what will be substituted for the first word when it matches your "To: " entry. ZipNews Reader/Mailer v0.92b 3/07/93 - Perhaps the biggest single enhancement to date was completed today. The ZipNews reader can now serve as a local reader/mailer utility for Waffle sysops. It can be run standalone, imports mailbox.f contents (appendiing to what may already be in your reader's "home" directory). It will not delete your mailbox.f file. The Waffle local mode will handle Waffle's news directory structure. It must build indices, however, each time you add news to the system in order for the reader to access new articles. The reader updates your JOIN file, so you might want to make backup copies if you'd like to go back and read news with a different facility. The Waffle local mode requires: 1) the WAFFLE enviroment variable to be set (and pointing to the STATIC file), and 2) the ZNREADER.CFG file must have the specification for your news directory location(s). The reader does read your STATIC file, but it will NOT obtain news directory locations via your USENET and LOCAL files (yet). You invoke the Waffle local mode of operation by starting the reader with the command line parm of -L (or -l, it's case insensitive). You can readily tell that you are in the Waffle local mode, by the token "<WAFFLE>" that appears in the center of the time/date bar at the bottom of the screen. By the way (and I *DO* have to get to the reader docs very soon(!)), to invoke a monochrome mode of operation for better viewing on laptop LCD's, use the -m command line parm when invoking. In fact to see the few options available specify: ZNR ? - Found that "Subject:" lines were being truncated to 58 characters by replies and follow-ups. System changed to truncate very long subjects, but to allow at least lines up to 75 characters long. ZipNews Reader/Mailer v0.92a 3/05/93 - Header line control for replies and follow-ups completed. - Added anti-viral/anti-tampering code. - Eliminated still another cause of over-printing on menu screen when when shelling to DOS file handling functions (copies, deletes, etc.). ZipNews Reader/Mailer v0.92 3/04/93 - One of the key features of the final reader/mailer was added today -- the ability to specify and manage the Internet message headers commonly used with mail, and a slightly different set used with news. When entering either a message or a news article, and when prompted for the "Subject:", if you hit Ctrl-H you will be given an entry screen for configuring the desired message/article headers. This degree of control of header lines is not yet available while preparing replies and follow-ups, but it's coming. ZipNews Reader/Mailer v0.91g 3/01/93 - Fixed a bug which was screwing up and mixing up the colors of quoted text vs. original text in article/message displays. - The 'q' key was not quitting out of reading an article/message. Fixed - Pathnames selected via the pick list (such as in the "Retrieve" operation) were not being processed correctly if in excess of 30 characters. The result could hang the system. FIXED! - Corrected occasional "File Not Found" displays that would appear on the menu display (file deletion commands were being issued behind the scenes without regard for whether they were there or not, and some of these deletes did not find a file to delete). FIXED. ZipNews Reader/Mailer v0.91f 2/28/93 - Several beta testers hve suggested the addition of a "home" directory concept, as result of having started the reader on more than one occasion in a directory that they had not intended. So, with this release, the "home" directory specification has been added as an optional specification. If found in the ZNREADER.CFG file, the reader will switch to the specified drive and directory for operations. If the home directory is not specified, the reader will operate in the current directory. - Have added ability to tailor different colors for the quoted text that appears in mail messages and news postings. See the end of the ZNREADER.CFG file included in this archive. - Improved the functionality of the SPACEBAR when used to PgDn thru an article or message. Previously, it would not advance to the next unread article until you had "driven" the last line of the article up to the top line of the screen. Now, if you hit SPACEBAR when the last line of the message is on-screen, your display will advance to the next unread item. Nice! (..if I DO say so myself.<g>) (Thanks to Ed Krol, whose description of SPACEBAR in nn, in his "Whole Internet . . ." book, convinced me to incorporate this.) ZipNews Reader/Mailer v0.91e 2/26/93 - When quoting portions of an article or message which included its header lines, the indexing operation of the reader would get confused and index erroneously. Fixed. - The shell to OS (Drop to DOS) function, FILES - OS Shell, activated by the "quick key" F7, was not coded to reference the COMSPEC environment variable...and thus would not work in non-standard environments. Fixed. - Folks have been pretty much pleased with the standard colors of the reader, but their have been several requests for the ability to customize the article/message display screen (which has been arbitrarily a simple grey on black). This version allows you to specify the foreground and background colors of the article/message screen. See the new specifications at the end of the ZNREADER.CFG file included in this archive. Use your editor to copy these lines to your current ZNREADER.CFG and set your own colors. - You can now use the F1 key to select HELP (in addition to the "h" and "?" keys). - Extended by 6 characters the length of the Subject: line that can be shown in the header area of the article/message screen. (Every character counts . . .) - When "catching up" newsgroups or threads within a group using the "c" key, the selection arrow will automatically advance to the next group or thread with unread article.s ZipNews Reader/Mailer v0.91d 2/25/93 - Maror re-arranging of main menu for clarity. Eliminated overwriting of mail as an option. In registered readers, mail as always appended to existing mail. For a while, you're going to have to houseclean your own mail -- by either deleting username.MAI or or by editing that file manually (it IS editable). - If you attempt to Quit out of the reader after composing mail or newsarticles, you are reminded that they are there and asked if you would like to create an upload packet. No more forgetting to create upload packets, thank goodness! - Changed mask for displaying stored packets to "*.z*". So, all files with a "z" as 1st pos. of extension will show in the pick list shown during the "Restore" request. - New follow-up function in which some editors (Qedit for one) would experience long line problems because quoted article contained only CRs, rather than CR/LF combination. FIXED. - Fixed something that "broke" a couple of releases ago. The mail.log file was no longer accumulating copies of mail sent. FIXED. - When the mail.seq or news.seq files (which count mail or news article numbers, used as part of filename extension) reached 100, they did not re-cycle to 0. Fixed. 2/24/93 - Fixed loss of cursor in some editors during the shell. Especially bothersome to users of Qedit and TED. - Fixed the Reply-To: header (from Reply_To:) ZipNews Reader/Mailer v0.91c (2/23/93) The following have been added/fixed since the previous Beta: - More complete headers in mail. Added a "X-Mailer:" line. Also, "Reply-To:" is now added to the message if included in the ZNREADER.CFG file. (Note this change will cause failure to produce proper message headers within versions of the ZipNews Door prior to v0.96b version of that door. v0.96b of the door can handle messages from the prior newsreader but older doors are not "forward" compatible.) - When replying to mail, it no longer starts quoting with "In YOUR_PERSONAL_MAIL you wrote:", now says "In your earlier message you write:". - There was a bug whereby your last read indicators would be lost when switching from NEWS mode to MAIL mode or vice versa. Fixed. - Added ability to append new mail received to prior mail in the current directory when loading a new packet.